TY - JOUR
T1 - Accuracy, Authenticity, Fidelity: Aesthetic Realism, the Deficit Model, and the Public Understanding of Science
AU - Vidal, Fernando
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018. Argument Deficit model designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public. Though criticized, it is still widespread, especially among scientists. Its persistence is due not only to factors ranging from scientists' training to policy design, but also to the continuance of realism as an aesthetic criterion. This article examines the link between realism and the deficit model through discussions of neurology and psychiatry in fiction film, as well as through debates about historical movies and the cinematic adaptation of literature. It shows that different values and criteria tend to dominate the realist stance in different domains: accuracy for movies concerning neurology and psychiatry, authenticity for the historical film, and fidelity for adaptations of literature. Finally, contrary to the deficit model, it argues that the cinema is better characterized by a surplus of meaning than by informational shortcomings.
AB - Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018. Argument Deficit model designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public. Though criticized, it is still widespread, especially among scientists. Its persistence is due not only to factors ranging from scientists' training to policy design, but also to the continuance of realism as an aesthetic criterion. This article examines the link between realism and the deficit model through discussions of neurology and psychiatry in fiction film, as well as through debates about historical movies and the cinematic adaptation of literature. It shows that different values and criteria tend to dominate the realist stance in different domains: accuracy for movies concerning neurology and psychiatry, authenticity for the historical film, and fidelity for adaptations of literature. Finally, contrary to the deficit model, it argues that the cinema is better characterized by a surplus of meaning than by informational shortcomings.
U2 - 10.1017/S0269889718000078
DO - 10.1017/S0269889718000078
M3 - Review article
C2 - 29580314
VL - 31
SP - 129
EP - 153
JO - Science in Context
JF - Science in Context
SN - 0269-8897
IS - 1
ER -